Lost In IKEA
by Lozwithasideofcheese
Summary: When Tino is entrusted with taking care of Peter for the day but then loses him in IKEA, what else was he supposed to do but ask for help from the mysterious, tall IKEA employee with glasses who now seems to be flirting with him? Human AU, SuFin.


_**So I found lots of these prompts on Tumblr so expect to be bombarded with Hetalia oneshots.**_

_**All credit for the idea goes to alouettesque and her awesome post **_

post/107763886683/thrilling-new-au-scenarios-for-your-otps

"I lost my little sibling in IKEA and I need your help finding them"

Berwald had worked in IKEA for 13 years. He knew this store better than he knew how to start a conversation with a customer and he knew the prices of every single item they brought in. He was perfectly content being an in-store manager and had never asked or even thought much about a promotion. However, with fairly long hours and with the majority of his coworkers being female, Berwald's dating pool was never that strong. So when a cute young man with a Scandinavian accent asked him politely to help him find find his younger brother, how could Berwald refuse? Of course, Berwald was rather confused as to how this young man could lose his sibling in such an easy-to-navigate store, but he humoured the younger man anyway.

"Wh're'd you l'se h'm?" Berwald asked calmly, trying to keep the panicking man next to him as calm as possible.

"Living room sofas..." The shorter man spoke. At this point, Berwald realised that one way to make the man calm down could be small talk.

"Y'r n'me?" Berwald grunted, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Pardon?"

"Wh't's y'r name?" Berwald tried to draw his words out a little more. He was sympathetic that his accent was probably quite difficult to understand. It had almost cost him his job a few times when angry customers couldn't understand him.

"Tino." It was just as cute as Berwald had anticipated. "Look... Berwald." Tino stared at Berwald's name badge to try and work out his name, "we were just looking at a new sofa on our way to bedroom. I find a nice looking one and let go of Peter's hand for just a little while and before I know it, he's gone! His Uncle did warn me that he'd wander off quickly but did I listen? Oh god Arthur's gonna have my kivespussi dangled over his balcony before I can even say sorry!" Berwald didn't know what a kivespussi was, but he could take a good guess and he felt pity for Tino.

"C'uld be 'n k'tchen." Berwald suggested, gesturing for Tino to follow him. As Tino was considerably shorter than Berwald, Berwald had to slow down his strides somewhat. "H'w 'ld 're ya?"

"I'm 23." Berwald raised an eyebrow. That was far older than he'd expected. In fact, Berwald was only 22.

"D' ya l've cl'se?" Berwald decided at this point that he had to at least try and get a date with Tino.

"Yeah. We live here. Well, obviously not in this retail park but we're about 2 miles away." Perfect.

"Y're pr'tty c'te." Berwald stuttered out after a minute or so of walking in complete silence.

"Don't patronise me." Tino warned. Obviously, it was not the first time he'd been called cute. Berwald cringed at the mistake he'd made. He'd been too typical. He needed to try harder.

"J'st c'nvers'tion. Ya h've a g'rlfr'nd?"

"No... I just broke up with my last girlfriend. She wasn't so nice to me. Just because I came out to her as bi, she immediately thought I'd been cheating on her or something." Once again, Berwald had stepped into awkward territory. Yes, it had been a while since he'd last flirted but he never remembered himself to be this nervous before. Why was that? Why was Tino different? Then again, he'd met his other partners in various gay bars across town and so the atmosphere was rather different. Also, he'd only ever initiated the flirting once. "Have you got a girlfriend?"

"S'ngle. Sw'ng th' 'ther w'y." Tino's eyes widened a little at his proclamation. Tino then realised why this strange IKEA worker had insisted on talking to him so much in spite of his obvious struggle to get his words out understandably. Was this how he flirted? Admittedly, the IKEA worker was kind of hot in a mysterious tall guy with glasses and a stable career kind of way, but he sure couldn't flirt to save his life.

"So Berwald, do you often help out strangers who lose their siblings in your store?" Tino tried to help his tall acquaintance out by initiating some small talk for himself.

"N't r'lly. J'st th' c'te c'st'mers." Tino sighed to himself. He was trying so hard. "'s th't h'm 'ver th're?" Berwald pointed towards the small blonde boy trying to reach a light switch on the wall that would make the green light switch off for whatever reason.

"Yes it is! Peter Kirkland you get over here immediately!" The small child looked over to Tino in fright and walked himself over to the two men with his feet dragging along the ground. "You scared me to death!" Tino flung his arms around Peter and held him closely. "Your uncle would kill me if I let anything happen to you, do you understand me?"

"So you weren't actually worried about my safety then?" Peter retorted. Tino took a step back in silence. After grabbing Peter's wrist in some kind of vice-like grip, Tino turned back to Berwald.

"Say, Berwald. Are you free on Saturday at 7pm? I'd like to repay you for helping me find this munata."

"Y's." Berwald grunted in return, his lips turning upwards a little for the first time since they'd met.

"That's great. Here's my number, I'll call you at 6 to make sure you're still up for it, okay?" Tino noticed Berwald's hands shaking as he nodded his head and grabbed an IKEA pencil and scribbled his name on a notebook that he always kept on his person. Berwald handed over the piece of paper with his number on it and gave Tino the most earnest smile he could muster. Tino then borrowed the pencil, tore a clean bit from Berwald's note and wrote down his own number and handed it back to Berwald. From Tino's perspective, Berwald's smile was barely noticeable, but noticeable nonetheless. The two of them stared into each others eyes for a long time before Peter eventually tugged on Tino's hand and Tino realised that he had to go. "Right, we should be going. I'll see you on Saturday, Berwald."

"Bye." Berwald grunted in return. After Tino and Peter had walked into the distance and out of range of seeing him, Berwald had to sit himself down to calm himself until he could stop his hands from violently shaking.

He had a date.


End file.
